


Come away with me

by ficalicious325



Category: The 100 (TV)
Genre: F/F
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-01-02
Updated: 2016-04-17
Packaged: 2018-05-11 04:30:36
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 3
Words: 10,476
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5613985
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ficalicious325/pseuds/ficalicious325
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>What if it had been Octavia and not Finn?</p><p>Raven came down to Earth for Octavia AU</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

Raven Reyes first meets 'the girl under the floor' when she is ten years old. Her mother had come back drunk after spending this weeks rations on moonshine and pushed Raven out into the corridor, leaving purplish-black marks painted all over her body. 

She wasn't an idiot, she knew that you weren't meant to be out of quarters after midnight under the age of eighteen. She knew that if a guard found her she'd be sent to the young offenders block and her mother would be most likely floated. Raven wasn't an idiot, but she was scared and didn't know what to do.

Hearing footsteps echoing down the hall pushed Raven into a sprint, her heart stopping when a tall man wrapped an arm around her waist, lifting her up. He didn't look like he was over the age of eighteen but the guard uniform he was sporting sent her swirling into the depths of what she would later learn to be a panic attack. 

He put her down quickly and helped to regulate her breathing until slowly and carefully she rejoined him in the corridor. His mop of brown hair was combed back in an attempt to make him look older than he was and his big brown eyes were creased with what seemed to be concern. 

There was no denying that Raven was a little kid, at her current height the top of her head was the same height as his belly button. She was skinny, he'd later find out this was mostly through the lack of food she was available to, and her brown hair was long and pulled into a pony tail which made her look younger than she was. 

Her eyes were the thing that stood out to the guard. They were big and brown like his own but he could see the panic in them, like the 'rabbits' he'd read about in books that used to run around Earth and get caught by surprise. Upon closer inspection, he realised she was shaking fiercely, this girl was terrified. 

The guard in front of her crouched down so they were eye to eye and reached out his hand. Raven flinched, closing her eyes to expect a hit landed on her rib cage, only to open them after a pregnant pause. 

"I'm not going to hurt you," the guard whispered carefully, "I'd like to help you, would that be okay?" His face was clear and open and he showed no reason to mistrust him but Raven was still wary, not used to kind demeanours. She gave him a slight nod that he would have missed if he hadn't been looking so carefully, triggering him to stand up.

"Now, if anyone finds out about this I'm going to get in a lot of trouble, okay?" Raven nods again. "How about we go back to my room and you can hang out with my mom for a bit until we find you somewhere to sleep?" He looked nervous, which made the young girl jittery in turn. She knew this was a big deal, if they were caught his whole family as well as her own would be in trouble, it was a big risk. 

The guard holds out his hand for her again, "my name's Bellamy, what's yours?" She stands tall at this question, puffs her chest out and raises her chin. 

"I am Raven Reyes, and I'm going to be the youngest Zero-G mechanic the ark has seen in fifty-two years." He smiles down at her as she takes his hand and the two begin walking towards his rooms. 

They manage to keep a surprisingly low profile and Raven starts to tell him all different kinds of equations that he's pretty sure he only got taught last week. Before they get there Bellamy stops them; Raven's eyes go wide and she thinks that she's in trouble again. 

He places a placating hand on her shoulder and looks her square in the eye, face serious. "Raven, I'm sure I don't need to tell you how vital this is that you keep what happens tonight a secret. If they find out that I found you and didn't report you, we'll both be in lots and lots of trouble." The ten year old nods, her face a picture of seriousness. "By bringing you back here I'm putting my family in danger, do you understand?"

Unsure as to what to say, Raven blinks owlishly at him. She can't quite understand why he's doing this, why he's risking himself and his family to save her. According to her mother, she's not 'worth the effort', the only good thing about her being the extra ration cards. After a while she nods and holds up her pinky finger. "I read, in a book," she starts, "that they did this on earth to make a solemn vow. If you break a pinky-promise then you are completely at their mercy." 

Bellamy has to bite his lip not to smile and schools his features back to a serious expression, linking his pinky with the smaller one in front of him. They stand and continue down the corridor as though nothing happened. The young guard checks carefully up and down the corridors at least four times before doing an intricate series of knocks on the door in front of them. 

The door swings open and an older woman appears, with kind but tired eyes. Raven watches as her expression changes when she catches sight of her, a shift she is well accustomed to. The young girl starts to back away, knowing that when adults are angry it is best to let them handle it themselves. She is clearly not wanted here. 

Bellamy and his mother argue in hushed tones, not looking at the girl slowly paling and moving further and further away. When they do turn to her she looks like she's ready to turn and sprint down the corridor, regardless of the guards that might catch her and both the guard and the woman have the decency to look ashamed.  

He crouches down again and holds out his hand, beckoning Raven forward but she doesn't move. She stays where she is, her shakes visible from where they're standing and shakes her head slowly. He should have known that his mother wouldn't agree to letting her sleep there that night, they had enough to worry about hiding Octavia, let alone another small girl, he just couldn't bring himself to let her get taken away and locked up. 

Bellamy looks up pleadingly at his mother, who sighs and pushes the door open, a sign that Raven is welcome. She stares for a moment, nervous and uncertain; this woman could hurt her like her mother as well. She is taken completely by surprise when a small head pokes her way around the door. 

The girl is the same age as Raven, with dark brown hair with a box fringe and a pale face that she's never seen before. Her smile sets off the butterflies in Raven's stomach and she finds herself walking towards the girl without even noticing. 

Bellamy smiles as he looks between his sister and the small scruffy girl he'd found, pleased with his decision to bring her back to his home. His mother is not so welcoming, but he knows that's mostly because she is scared about Octavia being found. 

When Raven gets close enough the girl in front of her holds out her hand and for some reason she takes it, just like that. Her eyes widen in surprise at her immediate trust of this girl before she is pulled into the room. 

 

* * *

 

 

At twelve, Octavia and Raven have become fast friends. The older of the two, Raven, has excelled in her studies and has the free time to teach Octavia everything she has learnt. She knocks on their door excitedly one day with the news that she has been chosen for a fast track programme in to mechanics. 

Octavia smiles at her, her chest brimming with pride, knowing that one day there will be stories of Raven Reyes, the youngest Zero-G mechanic. She only hopes that the girl who hid in the floor will be with her every step of the way.

She dreams sometimes of what it would be like for Raven to save her. Her brother has books about the ancient Emperors of Earth who had whole armies at their feet. She pushes past those pages and reads about Trojan horses being snuck into villages to save lost loves, and dreams that one day Raven will sneak her out of this room in a contraption made from her own hands.

At fourteen, Raven has mastered the air ducts above their heads and manages to travel too and from the Blake's home without any chance of being caught. She loves the thrill of crawling her way through the dark grey pipes, but she loves Octavia's grin when she falls from the ceiling even more. 

Her mother has been drinking more and more moonshine and Raven's already too-small clothes are starting to get baggy. She never accepts any of the food the Blakes offer her though. She knows two food rations is a stretch between three people and she won't make them push it to four. 

The only thing she doesn't object to is when Aurora sits her down on a bed and starts to measure her inseam. "If you won't take our food," she says, measuring around Raven's too-skinny waist. "At least take my tailoring." 

Octavia laughs at her whenever this happens, already long and lean like her brother. Octavia is full of energy and Raven knows she hates being cramped up like this, in this tiny space with nowhere to run to. She dreams of taking her for a walk, maybe the Unity Ball when they're old enough. She doesn't tell her best friend that the first thing she'd made when they had let her use the workshop properly was a Ball mask so that her identity would be hidden. 

When Bellamy comes back a few months later, having finally been granted the extra rations that guards get, Raven finally caves. The four of them sit around the small sewing table in the room, her and Octavia on pillows snatched from the bed, and share their first full meal together. Raven gets the sense that this is what home is meant to feel like. 

 

* * *

 

 

On her sixteenth birthday, Raven is told that she is to become an apprentice in the mechanics workshop. She is filled with absolute delight and her only thought is ' _I can't wait to tell Octavia'_. She does a few days later when they have the room to themselves and they're lying on their backs staring up at the ceiling. Octavia grabs Raven's hand so tight that she thinks she's never going to able to hold a screwdriver the same again and whispers "I'm proud of you" into the silence of the room.

Raven Reyes swears the moisture in her eyes is just the dust in the air.

It's four months later when Raven's mother gets discovered. The guards are performing a 'surprise' inspection, this time in the middle of the night. She curses herself when her first thought is that they don't find her best friend and not her mother. 

The knock on the door wakes her from her sleep and she wonders who it could be, her mother is already passed out in her bed behind her. Opening the door, the first thing she spots is Marcus Kane smirking, the guards push past her and she is knocked to the floor. They take her mother in the middle of the night and Raven feels an overwhelming feeling that this is her fault.

They make an example out of her the next day in the cafeteria. Mrs Reyes is held by her shoulders, handing drunkenly between two guards. "Moonshine is a forbidden substance on this vessel." Kane announces to the hall. Raven freezes and feels as though every single eye in the room is on her. She just wants Octavia. 

She zones out whilst Kane makes his speech, and only listens in when they announce her mother's sentence. She is to be floated that afternoon. The moisture in her eyes is just the dust in the air.

She doesn't return to the Blake home for another week, unsure as to whether or not she can face her guilt. That question is answered when Bellamy turns up at her door. Her room is a mess, due to far too many inspections, and she feels as though no shower could rid her of how dirty she feels. 

He hands her a sheet of paper, sadness and understanding in his eyes. She doesn't want his pity. She goes to close the door on him but is stopped by his foot. "She misses you, Reyes. I can hear her crying every night when she thinks we're all asleep." 

Raven closes her eyes, she doesn't need this right now. She knows the only thing she needs is Octavia's embrace and stupid jokes about physics that she knows are only an attempt to make Raven laugh. She shuts the door on Bellamy and gives it a few hard punches moments later, doing more damage to her hand than the door. 

She drops through the air ducts that evening. 

Octavia is on her own in the room, doing some of her mom's sewing. When Raven lands she spins around, fist at the ready. The mechanic curses herself for leaving her best friend for so long. When she realises who it is, she rushes forwards and brings Raven into a bone-crushing hug that she hadn't been expecting. 

This time, she lets the moisture in her eyes fall and doesn't blame it on the dust. She let's Octavia thumb away the tears on her cheeks and sobs into her shoulder when she can't hold it back anymore. 

When she's all cried out, she curls herself into Octavia's side and the two of them just hold each other until they fall asleep, both silently vowing never to leave for that long again.

 

* * *

 

 

On the seventh year of their friendship, Raven plucks up the guts to give Octavia the mask she made for her all those years ago, except she doesn't. She leaves it out on the table for her to find when she comes back from the bathroom and scrambles up into the air ducts before she gets back. Raven curses herself for being a coward. 

She finds out later that the Blakes had been keeping a girl under the floor for sixteen years. That Aurora has been floated and Octavia is in solitary confinement. When she drops into their room later that day in a panic, she only finds Bellamy, head in his hands. 

The man looks up when she comes in, no longer a boy. She sees the water gathering in his eyes and is hugging him before she can stop herself. Their secret got found out. 

She holds him as he sobs into her shoulder, a scene not unlike the one that happened in this room a year before. He tells her that it was all his fault, that he found the mask and persuaded Octavia to come to the ball, that he'd be watching her the whole time. 

Something cold and heavy grows in the pit of her stomach as Bellamy talks and when he falls asleep she leaves to go back to her room. The first thing she looks up after her fitful night is the air conditioning plans into the juvenile detention centre. 

Raven makes plan after plan, slowly figuring out all the details. She finds out what room Octavia is in, and then which set of pipes would be best to take; she can't go over the guard station because she would make too much noise and could be caught. Instead she goes for the slightly longer but safer route.

It's a week and a half since the found Octavia, the longest they've been separated their entire friendship, before Raven gathers everything she'll need and makes her way into the air ducts. Everything goes smoothly until she gets to the grate of Octavia's room and it's screwed shut. 

Raven can see her best friend curled up in the corner and her heart aches with how close she is. She has to make her way back to her room. The next day, Raven invents what she calls a 'reverse screwdriver' and heads back into the air ducts. 

This time when she reaches the room, her best friend is awake and pacing back and forth in the small space.  _It's still bigger than a hole in the floor_. Raven muses as she gets to work on the bolts holding the grate to the ceiling. 

Octavia's head snaps up at the noise, it's one she's familiar with, having it as a frequent occurrence throughout almost her whole childhood. She shakes her head and passes it off as a dream, the solitary confinement starting to get to her. That is until the grate shifts and then swings and a well known pair of boots makes their way down.

When she lands Raven stands before her best friend who is blinking rapidly, her mouth open in shock. "Come on, O, you didn't think I'd leave my best girl to spend all her time in here without me did you?" 

Octavia picks Raven up and swirls her around before she even knows what's happening. When she puts her down, she realises how close she is to her best friend's mouth. Her eyes dart from the pair of brown soulful ones in front of her to plump lips. 

Raven sucks in a breath, hoping what she thinks is about to happen, is actually about to happen. When soft lips meet her own she almost sighs with relief, her tan hands moving up to grasp at Octavia's thin waist, doing anything that would just bring her that bit closer. 

As their lips move against one another and their hands grasp and shirts and pull at hair, Raven thinks  _the 'reverse screwdriver' is the best goddamn invention ever._

 

* * *

 

 

Reyes finds herself going back to Octavia's room every night from then on. They talk, a lot, kiss, a lot, and do so many other things they could never do when they were alone before. Promises are made and bound with pinky fingers between the four cell walls and one day Raven plops down into the cell to find Octavia has a gift for her. 

Somehow she has managed to get her hands on some metal and carved it into the shape of a Raven. When she hands it to her she looks so scared and almost proud that Raven feels like her heart is about to beat out her chest. This wonderful girl is hers and she says thank you on their backs all through the night. 

Coming up to test time she paces back and forth in Octavia's cell, worrying her little raven between her fingers as her girlfriend asks her question over question for her Zero-G exam. She's laughing at her, Raven can tell but she's just so nervous to get this right that she can't bring herself to care. She has to pass this exam, it's all she's wanted her entire life. Well that, and the girl in front of her. 

The test day comes and goes and so does the first night that Raven doesn't sneak into her cell. Octavia is worried sick and doesn't sleep at all that night, plagued with thoughts of Raven getting caught, Raven getting sent in here, or worse floated. Her eighteenth birthday is in two weeks and she's not sure she can handle life without her trusty mechanic by her side. 

Three days later Raven drops into her room. Octavia wants to hit her, she wants to yell at her for making her worry, and most of all she wants to hold her close and tell her everything is going to be okay. She'd heard the guards talking that night about the kid who'd taken the Zero-G exam and got the highest score since they wrote the thing but didn't get a place on the programme. 

Her heart aches for her when she turns around and sees the red circles around her eyes. She opens up her arms and Raven practically falls into them, sniffling and jerking for a good twenty minutes. 

"They really need to sort out the dust in those air vents," she says after a while. Octavia just squeezes her tighter, not saying a word. She knows this is Raven's go-to defence and if it will make her feel better she just might allow it. All she wants to do is make everything better for her, just like the tanned girl did for her when she turned up in the middle of a corridor over seven years ago. 

It turns out a week later, all Octavia's prayers are answered when she hears the news. Raven did it, they let her into the programme despite everything. She has never been more proud of someone in her whole life and she can't wait until Raven arrives to night to show her how happy she is. 

 

* * *

 

 

It's a month later when Raven sees something being ejected from the Ark. It's too small to be just a standard pod and not big enough to be a research mission. She frowns and looks at the blueprints laid out before her. 

As she enters the pressure lock after her time on the outside she grins. Octavia is waiting for her in her cell and Raven has a promise ring that she's been meaning to give her for the last year but never had the guts. 

She strips out of her gear far to quickly for Wick and is slipping the raven around her neck when she hears them talking about how JD has been put under quarantine, even the air ducts are shut.  _Even the air ducts are shut._

She hurries back to her workshop after that, trying to busy her shaking hands with something,  _anything,_ that could take her mind off of this. She goes to visit Bellamy but he's not answering his door either. The Ark is alive with gossip that she tries desperately not to listen to.

On the drop ship, thousands of miles away, Octavia shuts her eyes and sends up a desperate prayer to anyone that's listening to take care of Raven. To not let her get hurt, she knows she will probably never see her again but she can't think like that, she has to remain hopeful. 

Their crash landing and subsequent discovery of Bellamy has her world spinning on a whole other axis, she's sure that Raven could come up with some huge quantum physics way of explaining it and frankly Octavia would do anything to hear it right now. 

Their days on the ground are hard, and Octavia finds herself thinking of Raven more and more. She thinks of how she'd tell her what a monumental dick Bellamy has turned into, how she hopes she's not looking at those wristbands and thinking Octavia's dead. She thinks of all the things Raven could make with all of this scrap metal and as much as Monty makes her laugh and Jasper's injury and wobbly recovery distracts her she would do anything to feel her girlfriend's warm embrace. 

They've been on the ground longer than she can count when she spots something burning through the sky. She wishes on it, thinking it's a shooting star like the ones Raven told her about on the Ark and is desperate to go and find it. Bellamy stops her though and his 'protectiveness' is starting to grate against her. She moves her stuff into Clarke's tent and waits until first light for the two of them to set out together. 

They split up, hoping to find whatever fell sooner rather than later, she knows Bellamy is out looking to but something says to her that there is a slight hidden agenda here. She hears Clarke's shout from a couple of hundred metres away and comes running. She reaches a clearing and her heart stops and the sight before her. 

Raven is stood in front of her very eyes, arms wide open and looking at the sky. There's a beautiful, peaceful smile on her face which is only countered by the trickle of blood running down her forehead. She barely whispers her name before those big brown eyes she loves so much are on her own. 

She couldn't stop sprinting towards Raven if she tried and she swears holding her in her arms again makes something inside her click back into place. Like the world that had been thrown off it's axis for so long is finally righting itself, like she's finally home. 

Later that evening, she holds Raven in awe. They are in front of the fire by the drop ship, Clarke across from them. She can't believe Raven made it here, in a ship she built  _herself._ She tells her stories of their time on Earth and it makes Raven happy to see Octavia in all this open space, the bird once caged can finally fly free and the mechanic thinks she will do anything to see that she is never caged again. 

 


	2. Chapter Two

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> So I took this one a bit of a different way than how I planned it. It was meant to kind of follow the actual plot but then I found myself writing something a bit different, I hope you still like it!

The first few days on the Earth pass in a blur for Raven, with visits to beautiful lakes that apparently she's not allowed to go in, to watching her girlfriend in a field of blue butterflies. Really, she's starting to wonder whether this is all really a dream, that Dr. Griffin never asked her to come down and that she's still up on the Ark and going to wake up alone in her room.

She meets the true reality of what Earth is really like a week later. A hunting party had gone out of the gates in an attempt to find something other than berries to eat and when they returned it felt like Raven's whole world was ending. Bellamy pushes his way into the compound with Jasper, Murphy and a floppy haired boy named Finn hot on his heels; it's the precious cargo that he's cradling in his arms that has the mechanic's heart sinking to her boots, it's the red staining his hands that has her own hands clenching into fists and the air rushing out her lungs, and it's the terrified look in his eyes as they meet her own that spurs her into action. 

She yells for Clarke as she runs toward the limp Octavia in her brother's arms, still managing to look unfathomably beautiful. They make their way into the drop-ship, Clarke calling out for her to set up a radio signal to her mom. Raven panics a little at the thought of letting Octavia out of her sight like this but follows the bonde's orders all the same. 

She can hear Clarke demanding that Bellamy tells her what happened behind her and she tries to block it out, knowing that if she gets caught up in it her emotions will run riot and for now, she needs to be able to focus. 

The next few hours passes in a blur, all she knows is that Octavia's face is pale, unnaturally so, and her hand feels so cold wrapped in Raven's warm ones. The mechanic can't help thinking that it wasn't meant to be like this. They're just kids, all of them, kids thrust into an adult world that they had no idea how to survive in.

A shout from outside grabs Raven's attention; Clarke pushes her way through the flap and over to Octavia and Raven, a strange look in her eye. "How's she doing?" The blonde asks, not expecting to get a real answer out of Raven, just trying to break the silence that is enveloping the room. 

She bustles around her wounded friend, checking her vitals and the wound. Clarke knows this is going to be a bumpy recovery but the Blake is strong and is already starting to regain a little colour in her cheeks. She smiles at Raven, who is clearly shaken by all of this, her hand holding Octavia's like it's a life line. 

They stay like that for a while, before a ragged breath is heard from the injured girl on the table. Raven's heart slows down for the first time since she saw her girlfriend lying limp in Bellamy's arms and her eyes start to water when they meet the ones she missed so very much. 

"Hey, pretty girl," Octavia groans, "what's wrong? Why are you sad?" She tries to sit up to comfort her girlfriend but realises very quickly that's not going to happen any time soon. Raven gives her a watery chuckle and Clarke edges slowly out of the room to go and find Bellamy, who's been pacing back and forth outside.

 

* * *

 

 

It's almost a month later before Bellamy catches on that the relationship between Octavia and Raven is just that. He seems surprised by it, the last time he'd seen them together was on the Ark before the guards found his little sister and she got sent away. 

His surprise quickly shifts to anger and protectiveness, Octavia may have been away from him for a year but she's still his little sister. He manages to lure Raven out of camp, Murphy and Finn behind him. They meet her by an old tall tree and she her eyes flick from the rope in Finn's hands to the knife in Murphy's. 

"What's going on, Bell?" She asks, a frown on her face. She had been waiting for Bellamy to cotton onto their relationship sooner or later, Octavia being really rather open about the whole thing and herself being a little more conservative, she thought most of the camp knew by now, clearly she was wrong. 

He's still glaring at her, as if he knows that she's done something wrong and the reality of the situation seems to sink in. Murphy she can take, easily, Finn too, with a bit more trouble, but she knows she's outmatched by the three of them. 

Bellamy takes a step forward, pushing her back against the tree and Raven finds herself raising her hands in surrender, she's a smart girl, she's put two and two together. "Listen, Bellamy, I'm not going to hurt her. You've known me since I was ten years old." 

He can tell she's trying to reason with him and in the back of his mind he knows. He  _knows_ the girl standing in front of him would never hurt Octavia,  _knows_ that if she ever did she'd be hurting herself too. He  _knows_ all of this, but that doesn't stop him from beckoning Finn and Murphy forward. 

Raven puts up a good fight, and for a moment she really thinks she might win this, but the three boys are far too strong for her and she finds herself dangling from the tree by her arms and the rope. Bellamy looks her square in the eye when he says, "Stay away from my sister". But Raven's never been one to follow the rules. 

When her brother comes back into camp with his two monkeys, sporting a black eye, limp and cut to the cheek, she knows something has happened. She goes up to him to ask but he storms straight past her, the floppy haired boy shooting her an apologetic look. 

Clarke calls her over to help her gather some firewood and Octavia all but forgets about it, that is until the sun is starting to set and Raven still hasn't left her station inside the drop-ship. When she goes in there to get her to come and eat something, her heart sinks, Raven's nowhere to be found and her brother is mysteriously managing to avoid her completely. 

The younger Blake sibling spots him through the fire, he's sitting on a log with Murphy and Finn eating from a bowl. She storms up to him with fire in her eyes and fury in her step. She stops, her feet inches away from his and demands an answer, demands to know why he's been avoiding her since he came back into the gate this morning, demands to know who hit him and beat up his friends, but most of all she demands to know the whereabouts of her  _girlfriend_.

When he meets her eyes she sees anger in them, and thinly veiled regret. She knows he can be rash sometimes in his un-needed attempts to protect her, she just hopes he hasn't done anything too stupid. 

It's Finn that finally cracks, and only when Clarke joins her in her questioning. He tells them everything, how it was just to teach Raven to stay away from Octavia and how strong she had been. Octavia can feel the white-hot anger brewing inside her as she stares at Bellamy the whole way throughout Finn's story. When he's finished she doesn't turn away, she doesn't explode in anger and violent words, she merely stares at her brother and asks one word, " _where?"_

Clarke and Octavia sprint out of the compound in the direction Bellamy had told them, apparently the tree isn't too far from camp and they should be able to find it quite easily. The anger helps spur her forward, Clarke right behind her, but the anger all but drains out of her when she catches sight of the limp body hanging from the tree before them. 

She's climbing it in seconds, onto the branch where the rope is tethered and loosening the knot as gently as she can, as to not drop her girlfriend. Clarke catches her softly and lowers her to the ground as Octavia makes her way down and cradles her in her arms. 

Those big brown eyes flutter open slowly, a lazy grin painting those lips. She coughs and tries to swallow before meeting Octavia's eyes and mumbling, "you always were a stubborn one". She's exhausted, that much is clear, and if Clarke's worried gaze as she unties her wrists is anything to go by then the burns are pretty bad. 

"Raven, how long have you been up there?" Clarke asks, gently trying to rub feeling back into the mechanic's fingers. Octavia is stroking her hair and for some strange reason Raven's still smiling up at her. "Bellamy told us what happened, for what it's worth I think he feels guilty, I think we should get you back to the compound and get some food in you." The blonde continues, clearly trying to assess Raven's mental state. 

They start to head back, Raven's arms draped over both Clarke's and Octavia's shoulders, she keeps mumbling something about glowing mushrooms and Clarke and Octavia share worried looks the whole way back. 

The second they're inside the walls, Bellamy's shame makes itself apparent. He rushes over to them with bandages and a steaming bowl of whatever the dinner was meant to be. His eyes are big and wide, as if he didn't truly understand the gravity of what he'd done until that very moment and Raven stands straighter, looks him in the eye and says calmly, "I'm never going to stop loving her, Bell, either you need to get used to that or we need to talk it out because I swear if you ever do that to me again you'll have more than just a black eye". 

He hangs his head, the guilt weighing heavily on his shoulders, he can't even explain why he did it the only thing running round his head is  _your sister, your responsibility_. When he truly knows that he's made a big mistake is when he feels a small hand on his shoulder, he looks up to meet the brown eyes of its owner. 

She smiles at him softly, as if understanding what he's thinking, "I forgive you, Bellamy, I know you were just trying to protect her. Don't beat yourself up about it, the past is the past." He can only stand there open mouthed as Raven pulls him into a warm hug, she's so much smaller that she seems in his arms and he pulls her tighter as if to say 'I'm sorry' and 'thank you'. 

Raven pulls back, nods her head and links hands with Octavia as she finds a seat by the fire and all but melts into the younger girl's embrace. 

 

* * *

 

 

Octavia's forgiveness takes a little longer, she spends more and more time outside the gates on patrol than on guard so she can avoid her brother. She meets Raven for lunch on the slight hill looking over the river everyday and they share stories and jokes of the events so far. 

It's a month into these lunch dates that Octavia starts to feel as though someone is watching them, her suspicions are confirmed when they move to the trees one day and a tall, tanned, bald man comes out underneath them, almost as if he is looking for them. He's clothed in dirty, makeshift clothes with armour made from different pieces of scrap metal, and a sword swinging slowly in his right hand. 

Raven's wide eyes meet her own and she grins mischievously before dropping down from the tree. The man starts and spins towards her with his sword, Octavia can swear she hears Raven's intake of breath. The stranger stares her down and tilts his head, as if to analyse why she's still smiling. 

Instead of raising her weapon she thrusts her hand forward, "my name's Octavia," she starts, hoping that he'll catch on and shake her own hand. He stares at it for a minute and then another before he slowly sheaths his sword and wraps his fingers around her forearm. 

He doesn't speak just squeezes her forearm and lets go, before looking up and motioning for Raven to come down from the tree. Octavia giggles as she watches her girlfriend try to scramble down and when she slips, a few metres off the ground the stranger rushes forwards and catches her. 

"Not that I'm complaining being held by a strong handsome man or anything, but my girlfriend is right there..." This makes Octavia and the stranger laugh as he places her back on her own two feet and the Blake wraps an arm around her waist. 

"Lincoln," the stranger says when they've finished laughing. He has a slight accent and rubs the back of his neck self-consciously as the two girls grin at him. Octavia knows that this is the start of something exciting.

For the next two weeks, the three of them meet by the river for lunch. Lincoln starts to teach Octavia the grounder ways and Raven just likes to watch the way she moves, planning out how to make pieces of armour out of the wreckage for her to wear. 

They learn about Grounder politics, fighting, and their way of life and Raven can see O becoming more and more absorbed by it. She sees the way her eyes light up when she wins a fight and the way her smile almost split in two when Raven presented her with the new shoulder guard she'd made her. 

Neither of them can help feeling that this is the start of something really good. At night, when they're curled into each other on the small cot in their tent, they talk about how good it would be if they could merge with the Grounders, if they could work out a way to work together. 

When they bring up the idea to Lincoln, he stiffens, he tells them of their Commander, who plans to attack within the week as payment for the deaths caused by the crashes of their ships and the actions of Finn and Murphy. Octavia feels as though her whole world is crashing down, again. 

When the attack does come, she goes out and fights, Raven beside her and tries to prevent an all out war, she talks to Clarke about a truce and tries to explain that their ways are different from anything they would have experienced before. 

Somehow in the midst of it all the two girls get separated. She sees Lincoln and desperately tries to ask if he's seen Raven but it doesn't work, she has no idea where she disappeared to and is about to go back and look for her when Bellamy turns up at her side. 

His face is serious and angry but he is fighting well, together they manage to clear most of the area before realising that they are vastly outnumbered. Just then, a horn blares and all the Grounders stand to attention, stopping whatever fighting they were involved in. 

A path clears through the warriors and Octavia knows she's about to meet the Heda that Lincoln had told her about. When she comes face to face with the intimidating brunette she drops to one knee and drags Bellamy down with her, just like they were told to do and the rest of the Grounders have done. 

"Are you Octavia of the Sky People?" She asks, her voice commanding and sure. Octavia nods, terrified that she's going to be killed by the Commander without even saying goodbye to Raven. "Your  _houmon_ has met with me, she wishes for a truce between my people and your people. She came with your leader, Clarke of the Sky People, they tell me you are a warrior, is this true?"

Octavia's heart is beating so hard it feels like it's about to come right out of her chest. She nods again and turns when she sees Lincoln run up to the stern woman flanking the commander. She watches as they talk in hushed tones and then as the woman leans in and says something to her leader. 

Everyone is silent for what feels like ages before the Commander speaks. "Everyone, we are to fight no longer, the Sky People are here to organise a truce and we will honour the truce agreement until negotiations have finished." She continues in Grounder and Octavia stares at Lincoln, trying to understand what's going on, he refuses to meet her eyes, choosing instead to stare straight ahead, and her stomach flips,  _what is Raven doing?!_

Octavia and Bellamy are led by Lincoln back to the Commander's tent, inside Clarke and Raven are waiting, stood in front of the throne. O rushes up to both of them and hugs Clarke quickly before embracing her girlfriend. Raven looks somewhat like a naughty school child and Octavia is about to ask what's happened before the Commander makes her way inside, flanked by her generals. 

Octavia notes the way her eyes linger on Clarke for just a second longer than they should have done before turning to address all of them. It seems Clarke and Raven had managed to convince her that they would all be bette off working together rather than fighting. She thinks that was in part due to Raven demonstrating the new armour and weapons she had developed. 

Just when they are settling the payment that should be made to account for the deaths that they had suffered from the crash, they hear a shout from outside followed by many loud pops. All of them run out the tent, the Grounders drawing their swords. From this distance Raven can see the floppy haired boy, Finn, is firing his weapon randomly. 

She runs towards him, disregarding Octavia's shout and slows down when she gets close enough. She's about to start to calm him down when she hears a cry from behind her. She turns just in time to see Murphy raise his weapon and fire it towards her.

  

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm back to this one! I have one more part planned out in my head but again if people show interest I'm really into it so I'm happy to write some more! Just let me know :)


	3. Chapter Three

The world slows down around Octavia as she watches Raven’s knees buckle and then give out. Her eyes are trained on her love with acute focus and she finds herself sprinting towards her before she even notices. The younger girl manages to catch her just before she hits the ground and at once she is all business, pushing her feelings aside once again.

 

Clarke is with them in seconds, putting pressure against the wound in Raven’s back with shaky hands and a shakier smile. She encourages Octavia to say something, anything, to keep her girlfriend talking and awake.

 

Her beautiful brown eyes are blown wide, and Octavia sees terror echoing throughout them. “Hey, pretty girl, you’re going to be okay.” She tries, slipping her hand into Raven’s hair to cradle her head as she coughs once, twice, three times. 

 

At first it looks as if Raven is trying to tell her something but Octavia brushes the blood away from her mouth and encourages her to breathe, to please keep on breathing. When four grounders rush over to them, Nyko and Lincoln in tow with a stretcher, she is forced to let her girlfriend out of her arms and into theirs. 

 

They make it to what Octavia assumes is the healers tent in a blur, her eyes never leaving Raven just incase it’s the last time she gets to see that shade of brown that she is sure nobody will ever be able to replicate. Inside is a different story and Clarke is working together with Nyko as they help the love of her life the best they can. 

 

When she pushes her way past the numerous people standing at the table to her side she places the softest of kisses to Raven’s forehead. Clarke gives Octavia a look and she’s shaking her head before the blonde even has a chance to voice her opinion. 

 

“I’m not leaving her!” She says stubbornly, her hand wrapped around Ravens. “I won’t leave her.” She says again, more for her benefit than anyone else’s. Lincoln’s hand is on her shoulder but she can’t, won’t look away from Raven. She won’t leave her again. 

 

It’s then that the girl in question manages to speak, “O, baby, go with Linc, we know what Clarke is like… Let her make me awesome again and then we can spend all the time together in the world.” She begins to cough harshly, choking on her own blood and completely undermining the carefree attitude she was trying so hard to pass on to Octavia.

 

The younger Blake just shakes her head and presses kiss after kiss to Raven’s forehead, “I’m not leaving you,” she says again, “I love you.” 

 

Raven nods, the edges of her vision has started to go fuzzy and sound is become distorted, as if Finn and Murphy shot cotton wool balls into her ears rather than bullets into her spine. She chokes again, and all she can see is Octavia. She loves this girl with all her heart and if she’s the last sight she’ll ever see, well she’d be okay with that. She’s so beautiful. 

 

* * *

 

Octavia huffs and kicks the ground again. The sun sunk below the tree line a while ago but she can’t bring herself to move, Raven’s screams still echoing in her ears and making her heart ache. Lincoln had tried to comfort her but all Octavia wanted to know was that the girl who had stolen her heart almost ten years ago would be around to keep it safe for another one hundred. 

 

Bellamy had been suspiciously absent throughout the whole ordeal, and as she sits in the quiet and the dark she realises that she doesn’t even know what happened. She was so caught up in how Raven was doing and whether Raven was going to be okay that she hadn’t realised that her brother’s posse had managed to get their hands on guns, and had begun shooting randomly at innocent people. 

 

Rubbing her hand over her face she sighs loudly, it was never meant to be like this. The sound of someone clearing their throat startles her from her reverie and she spins from the trunk she was sitting on, sword raised and ready. 

 

The Commander stands before her and without even noticing Octavia is sinking to one knee. Lexa shakes her head and beckons for her to stand, somewhat uncomfortable at the thought of this wild girl bowing before her. 

 

“I brought you a plate from dinner, I assumed you hadn’t eaten.” 

 

Octavia shakes her head and gladly accepts the dish that is held out for her before following the Commander’s lead and sitting back down on the tree stump she had commandeered all those hours ago. 

 

Her stomach is rumbling and she’s sure Lexa can hear it from where she’s sat but the sky girl can’t bring herself to eat. The thought of sitting out here, munching on a plate of warm food, whilst Raven fights for her life doesn’t sit well with her and she finds herself just staring at the plate before her companion breaks the silence again. 

 

“You fought well, Octavia kom Skaikru, as one of our own.” The words shock Octavia more than she’s likely to admit and when she spots Lincoln giving her a thumbs up from outside the healing tent, the first small smile spreads across her face since this morning.

 

Lexa stares at her for a long second before clearing her throat, “I would be interested for you and your companions to stay with us for a while whilst the Bird Girl heals, perhaps you could take up training with Lincoln and our other warriors, I know my general is in need of a second.” She’s scratching the back of her neck and the tips of her ears are slightly rouged and that makes Octavia want to smile a little more.

 

She nods slowly, Lexa is the Commander after all and her mere presence commands respect. The two of them sit there in silence, listening to the woods around them interspersed with cries and whimpers coming from the tent in front of them. 

 

Suddenly, there’s a commotion inside the tent and both warrior and leader are sprinting towards it with their swords drawn. They certainly do not expect to see Lincoln leading a drunken Bellamy from the tent, gun hanging from his had and scowl on his face.

 

Octavia is rushing past the two men and through the tent flaps the second she sees the weapon. Raven seems to be unharmed, completely asleep by the looks of things, soft whimpers leaving her mouth at the pain she is clearly feeling. 

 

Clarke has somehow made her way over to where the Commander stands at the entrance of the tent and Octavia watches, her own hand in Raven’s hair as Lexa’s worried eyes give Clarke a once-over. Bellamy doesn’t seem to have done any damage but the younger Blake realises pretty quickly what could have happened if he’d had the opportunity. 

 

Raven stirs in the furs she’s wrapped in and Clarke is immediately at her side, fingers gently probing the wound and encouraging the mechanic to sit up and tell her where it hurts. She doesn’t seem to be listening though and meets Octavia’s eyes sluggishly.

 

The relief hits the warrior like a freight train, and she realises that she honestly thought that she’d never see that shade of brown again. The two of them stare into each other’s eyes for a long moment before Raven opens her mouth.

 

“Who are you cutie and what do I have to do to see you at my bedside again?” Clarke frowns as she notices Octavia staring at Raven slack-jawed. The injured girl is quite clearly high off the herbal remedies that the Grounders had managed to give her before she passed out and Lexa seems to be stifling a laugh. 

 

“Seriously,” Raven asks again, “you’re smokin’. Do we know each other?” Octavia starts to smile now, used to this flirtatious and joking version of her girlfriend, and nods. Raven’s eyes go wide and she tries to sit up but fails. “Woah, remind me to ask you out for a drink when I can get off this bed!” 

 

Octavia chuckles and seems to find her voice pretty quickly after that as she informs her girlfriend that they are, in fact, dating and have been best friends since they were eight years old. The four girls stay in the tent whilst Clarke carries out checks on Raven, the girl in question just stares at the ceiling of the tent and then back to Octavia again, and again, and again. 

 

* * *

 

Three months later found Octavia sat on the same tree stump from all those months ago. This time she wasn’t looking at the healer’s tent, rather she was looking towards the open workshop that Raven had set up between then and now. 

 

Her girlfriend was holding a blowtorch, with a mask down in front of her face and leaning heavily on her crunch. Octavia scratched the end of her nose before standing and making her way down the small hill and over to the mechanic’s workshop. 

 

She paused just before she reached her girlfriend and watched as Clarke came over to her, laying a hand on her back and saying something that Raven must've found funny because she threw her head back in the way Octavia loved, letting out a loud and booming laugh.

 

Something in her gut urged her to go forward, to step between Clarke and Raven and make her girlfriend laugh like that again. Her fingers twitched as she looked over her shoulder, wondering if anyone had caught her staring. It was when she caught sight of Lincoln leaning against a tent post that she finally moved from her position and over to the older Grounder. 

 

"Hey!" She shouted to him, " _I didn't see you at the hunt today!"_ The brunette continued in Trig. Lincoln smiled and pushed himself forward, walking alongside his smaller friend. Her Trig had gotten considerably better in the last few months that she'd spent at TonDC and he couldn't help but feel proud. 

 

The warrior come healer looked back over his shoulder towards where Raven was still stood at her bench talking to Clarke and nudged Octavia in the side when he saw the pair look up at them. His friend grinned as she met Raven's eyes and sent her a small, shy wave as they made their way over to the training ground. 

 

A few hours later, the familiar clicking of Raven's brace and crutch mingled in with the grunts and groans echoing around the training arena. Octavia looked up at the sound, keen to greet her girlfriend who she'd not had a proper conversation with since they woke up together that morning. However, she took her eyes away for too long, lingering on the girl she loved so much and Quint's fist met her jaw in a terrifying collision.

 

She felt her head rock back before her knees buckled. " _You shouldn't spend so long looking at that cripple, fool,"_ he spat at her. The whole room went quiet around them, his words echoing around them and waiting for Raven's sworn protector's response. 

 

Raven looked around, not understanding what was going on, she clutched Octavia's fixed shoulder guard into her chest as she watched her girlfriend's chest rise and fall. Her breath stopped in her lungs as Octavia swung her legs around in a move not too dissimilar from the one the Commander had performed a few weeks ago.

 

The warrior moved onto her shoulders as her feet connected with Quint's obliques before pushing his head backward in a harsh kick, she jumped to her feet and towered over him, laying a right hook followed by a swift upper cut to his face before sinking so close that she could feel his pungent breath on her face and whispered something before walking away towards Raven. 

 

Raven cupped her face with her free hand, running her thumb carefully over her plump lower lip, trying her best to get rid of the blood from the other girl's face. Octavia leaned into the touch, thankful that Raven was still here with her and began to lead her out of the arena and towards the tent that they had claimed as their own the second Raven was able to move from the healers' tent.

 

Putting down Octavia's shoulder guard Raven lay her crutch against the table and hopped carefully towards the bed, still strewn with furs from when the two of them had dragged themselves out of it that morning. 

 

She jumped slightly when she felt he leg being moved and watched as Octavia gently unbuckled clasp by clasp of her brace, wishing that just for one second she could feel Octavia's hands on her again, feel the way she used to rub up and down her calves in the cot in the Junior Detention Centre, feel how she bandaged up her knee and kissed it better when she tripped over O's mother's sewing kit back in her room, or feel Octavia's skin under her sole as she ran it up her leg under the covers at night. 

 

Raven sighed as Octavia shifted her back in the bed and helped her pull off her trousers, swiftly followed by her own. Their tops followed next and soon Octavia was lying slightly propped up at the head of the bed with Raven laying on her stomach.

 

It hadn't been an easy ride since she'd first seen Raven all those years ago in the corridor on the Ark but it had sure as hell been worth it. 

 

* * *

 

 

Raven Reyes first meets 'the girl under the floor' when she is ten years old. Octavia met the girl with wide brown eyes and sharp elbows at nine.

 

At twelve, Octavia and Raven have become fast friends. The older of the two, Raven, has excelled in her studies and has the free time to teach Octavia everything she has learnt. Octavia realised at eleven that Raven was always going to be 'it' for her, watching her try to explain the old Earth science of 'nano' and 'micro' technology, her heart swelled and set on fire from the sparks in Raven's eyes.

 

On her sixteenth birthday, Raven is told that she is to become an apprentice in the mechanics workshop. She is filled with absolute delight and her only thought is 'I can't wait to tell Octavia'. Octavia's first thought when Raven tells her is that she is the single best thing that has ever happened to her, the second is that one day Raven will be clever enough to build her own spaceship and finally,  _finally,_ she will have the place they always dreamed of, where simply being born wasn't a death sentence.

 

On the seventh year of their friendship, Raven plucks up the guts to give Octavia the mask she made for her all those years ago, except she doesn't. She finally realised the feelings that she held so deep for Octavia and part of her cursed herself for not realising it sooner. For Octavia, the mask signifies everything she'd ever dreamed of coming true, with their own spaceships, their own rooms, and more importantly a place where she can run free and Raven can finally understand what a full meal feels like. 

 

When Raven is eighteen she feels grass under her feet for the first time, she sees butterflies that are so blue they out-do the colour of the sky just after dawn or the lake that lies close to camp. More importantly when Raven is eighteen she learns what her future could be, and it is everything that she ever imagined. For Octavia, she sees Raven's awe and understands it, cramped up all her life only ever being free when the other girl is around, coming down to Earth felt like what she was born to do, after loving Octavia of course.

 

On the eve of her nineteenth birthday, Raven feels what true pain really is. It isn't her mother, laying blow after blow into her fragile frame, weak from malnutrition. It isn't holding Octavia as she cries herself to sleep because her mother got floated for just giving birth to her and feeling like it is entirely her fault. It isn't hanging by her wrists from a tree for hours on end because Bellamy Blake stormed bullishly into their relationship and all of a sudden decided that he got to call all of the shots. No, it's not even the burning fire she feels from the copper shell casing lodged in her spine. 

 

It's the feeling of her future, their future slipping away from her with every millilitre of blood that leaves her body, with every tear that falls from Octavia's eye and onto her face, she feels their lives slip away. Their dancing, their exploring, their climbing of trees, their wedding, their children. It's all slipping away in front of her and that's the most painful thing of all, this girl that she has loved since she was ten years old is going to have to keep going without her and that, of all things, is most excruciating of all.

 

For Octavia, it's no better. The world slows down around Octavia as she watches Raven’s knees buckle and then give out. Her eyes are trained on her love with acute focus and she finds herself sprinting towards her before she even notices. The younger girl manages to catch her just before she hits the ground and at once she is all business, pushing her feelings aside once again. Her head rushes to be rational but her heart is screaming at her to stop, to make it all stop, it was never meant to be like this. Love was never meant to hurt this much.

 

When she turns eighteen, Octavia's back is arched, hands grabbing at furs that are stopping her from running her hands through silken hair and pulling at her scalp. She welcomes the new day with an open mouth, sweat glistening on her chest and sweet, sweet release flooding through her blood stream. Her love is okay, she lives to fight another day and their future is safe. It may be a little different slightly slower and more careful than they ever planned for on the Ark but they are together and that's all that matters. 

 

When Raven creeps up her lover's body, settling herself on the open plane of Octavia's chest, she thanks whatever deity there is or was that they did not take her from this girl, her soulmate. That they left her be with her dreams of the future and burning passion for science. That they let Octavia be so fit and strong and born to be amongst this Earthy culture. She thanks them for the life that they gave her and most of all, she thanks them that they kept Octavia and Raven together, and that's all that matters. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I just wanted to take a moment to say thank you to everyone who read, kudos-ed, and left me a comment. For some reason this story just wouldn't leave me and the headcanons I have for Octaven are endless so hit me up on tumblr!
> 
> Also, on a more story related base, I do have another development of this story hanging around in my head so if you want to see it drop me a comment and even more-so if you want to talk to me about it slide into my tumblr inbox!
> 
> Thank you again, you lovely people.  
> V x

**Author's Note:**

> Hello! I hope you enjoyed reading this. I'd love to maybe do a second part to this if it goes down well so let me know!


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